Open Source Weblog

Based on a concept developed by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society Project Higgins is part of the Eclipse tools project and is designed to enable individuals to manage their online personal information.

Originally known as the Eclipse Trust Framework, it is being given a boost through the contribution of code by IBM, Novell and Parity Communications and IBM has announced that it intends to incorporate the Higgins technology into its Tivoli identity management software.

Nothing whatsoever to do with Higgins from the TV series Magnum (which somewhat bizarrely is the first link that I - and Google - made with the name) the project is actually named after the Tasmanian long-tailed Higgins mouse apparently.

Meanwhile Vyatta, which means "open" in Sanskrit announced its existence last week with the launch of a community to advance open source networking and the beta version of its Open Flexible Router.

It's a brave company, frankly, that decides to take on Cisco at any level, but Juniper has shown that there is the opportunity to compete with the networking giant in the various markets where it now operates.

Vyatta's founder and chairman (and Panorama Capital venture partner) Allan Leinwand has posted an interesting thesis about the potential for open source in the networking space, and the potential for his investment to produce returns.

Meanwhile the Vyatta company blog, which combines Leinward's thoughts with those of VP of strategy and marketing, Dave Roberts, makes for an interesting and entertaining insight into the workings of an open source start-up and the role of blogging in spreading the word. Recommended reading.